Baron Alfred de Luze, Grand Duke of Hessen, of which he was the Consul General, came from a noble Saintonge family that emigrated to Switzerland. In 1817, he set off to America with his brother, who set up an import-export business in New York. On his return in 1820, Alfred de Luze settled in Bordeaux, where he founded a trading company, Maison A. de Luze et Fils, to trade with his brother’s company in New York. At the time, the port of Bordeaux was expanding rapidly and the wine trade brought great wealth to the city. A large number of merchants established themselves at the heart of the business activity on the Quai des Chartrons, on the north side of Bordeaux, facing the Garonne, and Alfred de Luze was one of these. He soon became a big name in the trade, one of the pioneers without whom Bordeaux wines would not have acquired such a reputation.